U.S. Hispanic Population Continues to Rise Rapidly

I just did an interview with CNN Radio (national) about a U.S. Census Bureau report released tonight.

New data just released by the Census shows a Hispanic population that continues to grow quite rapidly. Hispanics, now the nation's largest minority population at 45.5 million, account for a huge percentage of overall U.S. population growth and this means America's future success will become more and more dependent on how well this population succeeds. The Hispanic population grew at 3.3% which is just slightly below the reported growth rate of 3.4%. Hispanics are now 15.1% of the U.S. population.

There are huge implications for this steady growth. Growth of the Hispanic, Asian and Black populations in the U.S. mean that by the year 2050, perhaps sooner, the U.S. will be a majority minority nation. Today a third of the U.S. population is minority and, if memory serves me well, some states like California and Texas now are already majority-minority.

Interestingly, today the National Alliance for Hispanic Health sought to draw attention to the fact that more than 15 million Hispanics are without health insurance. As the population continues to grow it will become more and more important that the U.S. government find a solution to this massive number of uninsured Hispanics.

I could write for hours on this, but simply put, we're going to need to meet the educational needs of this community to help ensure the U.S. continues to lead the global economy.

Putting my PR and corporate strategy hat on for a minute, continued growth of the Hispanic population (well over a million new Hispanics each year) continues to expand the Hispanic consumer market. And it doesn't take a genius to tell you that when a population continues to grow, the potential to serve the population and profit continues to grow.

Here are some of the first new clips on this Census data release:

The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/01/washington/01census.html

The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/30/AR2008043003397.html

Star Tribune (from wire services)
http://www.startribune.com/nation/18435529.html

AP story with quotes from NCLR, NALEO and friend Larry Gonzalez:
http://news.ktar.com/?nid=6&sid=823800
Excerpt: "Some Hispanic advocacy groups predict about 10 million Hispanics will show up at the polls, motivated by the usual concerns about the economy, health care and the war and an added catalyst of dismay over attitudes from anti-immigration movements."

Impact felt from Boston to McAllen:
http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/04/hispanics_called_fastest_growi.html
http://www.themonitor.com/news/car_10385___article.html/hike_light.html

More...

Here's the Census bureau fact sheet for Cinco de Mayo (May 5th):
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnw/20080429/pl_usnw/u_s__census_bureau_facts_for_feature__cinco_de_mayo